Ozzie Sport

It has been a while since I’ve done one of these lists of most popular. I’m hoping this list is more comprehensive than others I’ve done. The list includes all Australian athletes, clubs, leagues and sport organizations on Twitter that I’m aware of. There are a few cases where athletes and clubs outside Australia have been included. These are on there because the league they are part of is primarily Australian based: The Super 14, the A-League, the NRL, the Tri-Nations Cup,  the ANZ Championship, and the NBL. If anyone is missing, let me know. I’m especially interested in athletes competing in the Commonwealth Games.

This list doesn’t necessarily have much meaning from an analysis viewpoint. It can provide insight into some of the leagues, teams and athletes that do social media better. It might suggest who the most popular people and groups are online. Taken as a whole, it might suggest the best type of update strategy for getting followers. Or it might not. This information doesn’t exists in isolation and additional analysis is needed to impart greater meaning.

Now, on with the list…

Related Posts:

• Most popular Australian athletes, clubs, leagues and sport organizations on Twitter (October 11)
• Most popular Australian athletes, clubs, leagues and sport organizations on Twitter (October 4)
• Most popular Australian athletes, clubs, leagues and sport organizations on Twitter (version 2)
• Most popular Australian athletes, clubs, leagues and sport organizations on Twitter (November 7)

I’ve wanted to compare the NRL to the AFL on Twitter for a long time.  The problem is that they have a lot of followers.  For other teams, based on where our API is right now, there might be 200 to 300 location fields not filled in.  In both cases, there are were 6,000+ total followers.  Despite having massively improved the tool we’re building,  we’re still missing a lot.  In terms of the NRL data we gathered on September 2, we’re missing 836 locations.  (These may or may not actually result in actual city, state, country locations.)   For the AFL data gathered on the same date, we’re missing 351 locations.  At this would require several more days worth of work to fix, I figured there was enough data to draw some general conclusions and make a map of the comparative locations of AFL fans versus NRL fans.

For the AFL, the city was determined for 5,879 people who are from 891 unique cities.  For the NRL, the city was determined for 3,204 people who are from 493 unique cities.  The following table shows the follow count by city and league for all cities+leagues where the city had more than 100 people identified as from that location.

The location follow patterns appear to makes sense given what are the traditional strongholds and relative popularity of each league.  (It would be interesting to compare these to the A-League, ANZ Championship, W-League, NBL, WNBL, Super 14/15 and national side related follows to see where cities rank.  That map is a project for another day.)  When mapped with the location by city+league followed, you get the following:

View full map

The map shows that the NRL draws much more heavily in New Zealand than the AFL does. Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and South Australia are predominately AFL areas of followers; whereas, New South Wales and Queensland are areas of heavy followers for the NRL.

If the location data is broken down by state instead of city, 3,546 NRL and 6,681 AFL followers have an identifiable Australia state. It reaffirms the observed patterns:

Both teams appear to have strong follower populations international.  For the NRL, 4,987 followers have an identified country.  For the AFL, there are 8,671 who have an identified country.  With the exception of Uruguay, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, the AFL has the largest amount of followers by country.

With out knowing much, some of this makes sense.  It is much easier to watch AFL games in the United States and Canada than it is to watch NRL games.  Added to that, the AFL have spent some money trying to develop the sport there.  The United Kingdom is a traditional rugby stronghold.  New Zealand has an NRL team and doesn’t have an AFL club.

On September 2, I also got follower data for the Socceroos and the ANZ Championship.  The scale of followers was much smaller, with something like 4,500 and 250 respectively.  For the accounts, I found the mean, median and mode of ReTweets, Followers, Status Updates, Friends, and Listed.  This data is on the table below.

On the whole, Socceroos fans appear to be more active, have the most followers and follow the most people.  If we only look at the NRL and the AFL, the two sets of followers appear to be very close in composition.  The average number of followers is separated by one. The total status updates differs by a little more than 10.  The total number of friends differs by around 9.  The total number of times each follower appears on a list averages less than one.  If median and mode are used instead, the differences are similar in that there isn’t a significant difference.

In conclusion, there are distinct geographic patterns for AFL and NRL followers but beyond that, the two types of followers are pretty similar.  More analysis can and should be done to see if these patterns hold up country to country, state to state, and city to city.

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Still refining the tool where I can get the location and other data from all the followers for accounts. We can’t quite figure out how to check the verified account fields yet. Some fields appear only in tweets but not on profiles. Line breaks in profile descriptions are occassionally causing issues. My if/then location field isn’t working right. (Apparently fuzzy logic may need to be applied to allow for that as “Melbourne” is not appending as “Melbourne, Victoria, Australia” for me.) I decided to look at the Melbourne Storm today because I thought it might be interesting.

The official account for the Melbourne Storm is MelbStormRLC. They have 1,757 and we got information from all the accounts following it. For the major categories involving numbers, I got the mean, median and mode:

The numbers are very, very low when compared to AFL based St. Kilda Saints. The Saints have around 140 people who have 10,000+ followers and 15 people with 100,000+ followers and that’s with only half their followers counted. In contrast, the Melbourne Storm have no one 10,000+ followers. They also have no one who follows that many people. On the opposite end of the ladder, there are 52 (or 2%) people who follow only the Storm or the Storm and one other person.

Overall these stats suggest that people who follow the Melbourne Storm are not particularly active on Twitter: They don’t follow that many people, they aren’t followed by people, they update infrequently and they don’t appear on many lists. What these stats don’t tell is how often these people check Twitter. Some people might check Twitter often but not update and follow many people. (Different people use Twitter differently. It would be really interesting to see a survey that asked people how often they check Twitter and why they check Twitter.)

Beyond that, 1,308 people have their timezone information available in their profiles. (It might actually be more and this could be a problem in our data collection… but let’s pretend that this is representative of the whole group despite evidence to support that.) The following is a count by timezone:

Unsurprisingly, given that the team is based in Melbourne, that timezone is the most popular, accounting for 44% of the team’s followers. Sydney time, the area where NRL is dominant, accounts for 20%. I’m not certain how to explain the popularity of the Melbourne Storm in Hawaiian time. Brisbane makes sense as again, the area is an NRL stronghold.

In profile descriptions, 36 people mention the word Storm and 103 mention Melbourne. That seems like a fairly significant amount of people expressing team loyalty and seems comparable to the Saints.

Four people list a language code of ES and three people list FR. That’s less diversity than St. Kilda in terms of language. Still, the French ones seem more explainable than the ones for St. Kilda because rugby is played in France and players sometimes go there to play for French teams. It can help to develop an audience in Australia for the team.

The Melbourne Storm don’t have as many followers as the more popular AFL teams but they do have more followers than the Canberra Raiders. The controversy early in the season helped to boost their numbers and they’ve been much more interactive of late. … Or at least, they’ve relied less on TwitterFeed for content. That was a huge problem early on in the season. Beyond that, these numbers look realistic: They appear to be getting an audience of Melbourne based and Australian NRL fans following them. Most of the people following them update occassionally and have few enough followers that they will see the content that the Storm update with. That’s probably the ideal that people should be aiming for. Yeah, people with 100,000 followers are awesome, especially if you can get a ReTweet but they’ll never see your tweet and in the case of St. Kilda, a lot of those people with massive follower counts are just not in their ideal demographic.

Related Posts:

• One week Twitter change for Australia/New Zealand sport related accounts
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (December 1)
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (November 24)
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (November 18)

I found a really nifty Twitter tool.  I don’t generally do content analysis but I figured it would be better to start getting data to have it than to want it later and not have it…  The tool is Twapper Keeper. It allows you to archive all tweets based on hashtags and keyword searches. (I’m hoping I can then use this do to some sort of analysis or maybe compare the tweet location between followers and tweeters to see if the audiences are unique.) I spent most of the morning setting up a bunch of #hashtags to monitor related to the AFL and NRL. While noting that these tags were not all added at the same time, the table below gives an idea of the total uses of these hash tags over the past 7 to 10 hours.

What is interesting is that the popular teams are popular on Twitter too. Game day tags are pretty popular. The NRL and AFL are really close in terms of total number of tweets. (The difference could be accounted for by when each hash tag was added.)

Live updates of this table can be seen at TwapperKeeper.

Related Posts:

• One week Twitter change for Australia/New Zealand sport related accounts
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (December 1)
• Australia Sport Census: Most popular leagues in Melbourne on Twitter
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (November 24)

One of my favorite hobbies when out and about is to look at people’s shirts, hats, jackets, backpacks and scarves to see what sport teams are represented. It can be really interesting. (Clothes say a lot about a person at times. And sport related clothing can to. Why people wear things can involve a conscious fashion decision, because they visited the place where the team is based, because they want to be affiliated with the team or a city, in order to have conversations, because their team is winning, etc.) In Canberra, you’re just as likely to see a Hawthown Hawks as you are the Brisbane Broncos or the All Blacks as you are to see the Canberra Raiders or ACT Brumbies. It makes the game of sport clothing watching a bit more fun.

Yesterday, I went out on the Great Barrier Reef. (Went out with Quicksilver based in Port Douglas. They have a trip that does not require snorkeling or scuba diving. Boat holds 440 people. Not a small sample.) The variety was rather interesting with no repeats. The only team represented that seemed out of place was South Africa’s football team and I was wearing that shirt.

That said, the following teams were all represented once:

• Melbourne Storm
• Hawthorn Hawks
• South Sydney Rabbitohs (the guy wearing it immediately hit the bar after getting off the boat)
• Hong Kong Rugby 7s
• Cabonne United (Rugby league team from NSW)
• USC Trojans
• South African national football team
• Boston marathon  (Not a team but still a major sporting event)
• Canberra Raiders
• Boston Red Sox
• X-Games (not a team but a sporting event)
• Chicago Bears

After I got out, I spotted a kid in the marina wearing a North Queensland Cowboys shirt.  I couldn’t tell if he was on the boat or not so on my list of places I have seen jerseys, I put it with the marina rather than the reef.  Anyway, I’m not sure exactly what to make of this list.  I know there were Kiwis and Dutch and Germans and English and Spanish speakers and Koreans aboard.  I could hear their accents and see them reading printed material in the language or some one would ask them where they were from and they would say.  I just didn’t see sport clothing.  I don’t know if the  Western Australians and South Australians weren’t on board or just weren’t wearing sport related stuff for their teams.  I thought the Victorians were supposed to be more sport mad but not really represented here.  The USA was represented with a fair representation of teams and events.

Related Posts:

• One week Twitter change for Australia/New Zealand sport related accounts
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (December 11)
• Most popular sport league/team websites in Australia
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (December 1)

This list extends a bit beyond the AFL and NRL but not much.  The following list contains the total number of fans or members of a Facebook group or fanpage today.  All the official AFL and NRL club pages and accounts are included.  Beyond that, there are a number of other groups and clubs that I had looked at before.  Some of these are official accounts.  Some of them are not.  A number have been deleted after they were originally looked at.  This gives a bit of an idea of what I’m interested in.  It also gives an idea as to how successful official club pages are at capturing the majority of their audience or if fans are going elsewhere.  In some cases, it also gives an idea as to how successful anti-campaigns are at garnering attention.

League	Team	Name	Url	Total members	Official
AFL	AFL	AFL	https://www.facebook.com/AFL	175,275	Yes
Rugby League/State of Origin	Queensland Maroons	Queensland Maroons	https://www.facebook.com/queenslandmaroons	164,028	Yes
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	Socceroos – Australian National Football Team	https://www.facebook.com/Socceroos	122,725	Yes
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	Brisbane Broncos	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Hill-Australia/Brisbane-Broncos/99453774630	83,157	Yes
AFL	Richmond Tigers	I hate it when I’m kicking the footy around and Richmond try to recruit me.	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Richmond-VA/I-hate-it-when-Im-kicking-the-footy-around-and-Richmond-try-to-recruit-me/116177261751551?v=wall	70,250	No
AFL	Essendon Bombers	Essendon FC	https://www.facebook.com/Essendon	68,724	Yes
Rugby League/State of Origin	New South Wales Blues	NSW Blues	https://www.facebook.com/nswblues	62,852	Yes
AFL	Adelaide Crows	Adelaide Crows	https://www.facebook.com/adelaidecrows	51,467	Yes
AFL	Collingwood Magpies	Collingwood Football Club	https://www.facebook.com/collingwoodfc	49,007	Yes
AFL	West Coast Eagles	West Coast Eagles	https://www.facebook.com/pages/West-Coast-Eagles/38862387223	47,295	Yes
AFL	St. Kilda Saints	St Kilda Football Club	https://www.facebook.com/stkfc	33,109	Yes
AFL	Carlton Blues	Carlton Football Club	https://www.facebook.com/OfficialCarltonFC	30,322	Yes
AFL	Sydney Swans	Sydney Swans	https://www.facebook.com/sydneyswans	27,261	Yes
NRL	Gold Coast Titans	Gold Coast Titans	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gold-Coast-Australia/Gold-Coast-Titans/22602574592	25,714	Yes
AFL	Hawthorn Hawks	Hawthorn Football Club	https://www.facebook.com/hawthornfc	25,267	Yes
AFL	Fremantle Dockers	Fremantle Football Club	https://www.facebook.com/fremantlefootballclub	23,293	Yes
NRL	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Manly-Warringah-Sea-Eagles/222674735992	20,241	Yes
NRL	Wests Tigers	Wests Tigers – Official National Rugby League Club	https://www.facebook.com/WestsTigers.com.au	19,355	Yes
AFL	Richmond Tigers	Richmond Tigers	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melbourne-Australia/Richmond-Tigers/7769834477	18,045	No
NRL	Newcastle Knights	Newcastle Knights	https://www.facebook.com/NewcastleKnights	16,470	Yes
NRL	Sydney Roosters	The Official Sydney Roosters Page	https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Official-Sydney-Roosters-Page/222342250384?ref=sgm	15,362	Yes
AFL	Brisbane Lions	Brisbane Lions	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brisbane-Lions/21301860172	15,014	No
AFL	Brisbane Lions	Brisbane Lions	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brisbane-Lions/21301860172	15,014	Yes
AFL	North Melbourne Kangaroos	North Melbourne Football Club	https://www.facebook.com/northkangaroos	14,496	Yes
AFL	Richmond Tigers	Richmond FC	https://www.facebook.com/Richmond.FC	13,504	Yes
AFL	Port Adelaide Power	Port Adelaide Football Club	https://www.facebook.com/portadelaidefootballclub	13,229	Yes
NRL	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	Cronulla Sharks	https://www.facebook.com/cronullasutherlandsharks	11,230	Yes
Rugby League	New Zealand Kiwis	New Zealand Kiwis	https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Zealand-Kiwis/29087221880	10,745	Yes
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Western Bulldogs	https://www.facebook.com/Western.Bulldogs	9,304	Yes
NRL	Melbourne Storm	Sucked in Melbourne Storm! HAHA	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sucked-in-Melbourne-Storm-HAHA/119988934680797	8,566	No
AFL	Collingwood Magpies	Collingwood Magpies	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2208766149	8,066	No
Rugby League	Australian Kangaroos	Australian Kangaroos	https://www.facebook.com/australiankangaroos	8,042	Yes
AFL	Melbourne Demons	Melbourne Football Club	https://www.facebook.com/MELBOURNEfc	8,015	Yes
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Western Bulldogs	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5483691593	7,086	No
AFL	Hawthorn Hawks	hawthorn football club	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2210288061	6,557	No
AFL	Geelong Cats	Geelong Cats	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Geelong-Australia/Geelong-Cats/64398281288	6,278	No
NRL	Canberra Raiders	Canberra Raiders	https://www.facebook.com/canberraraiders	6,269	Yes
AFL	Geelong Cats	Geelong Cats Insider	https://www.facebook.com/GeelongCatsInsider	5,906	Yes
AFL	Adelaide Crows	Adelaide Crows	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2208515594	5,810	No
AFL	North Melbourne Kangaroos	North Melbourne Kangaroos	https://www.facebook.com/pages/North-Melbourne-Kangaroos/33221186760	5,173	No
ANZ Championship	ANZ Championship	ANZ Netball	https://www.facebook.com/pages/ANZ-Netball/92385331744	5,158	Yes
AFL	West Coast Eagles	West Coast Eagles Appreciation Group	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2212678352	5,031	No
NRL	Melbourne Storm	Storm Man	https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=725961793&ref=search&sid=7259	4,986	Yes
AFL	Sydney Swans	Sydney Swans	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2210531221	4,670	No
Rugby League	England Rugby League	England Rugby League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/England-Rugby-League/22459291791	4,645	Yes
NRL	Melbourne Storm	Give Melbourne Storm Their Premierships Back	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Give-Melbourne-Storm-Their-Premierships-Back/119876964691459	4,479	No
AFL	St. Kilda Saints	St Kilda Football Club	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2215006752	4,265	No
AFL	Gold Coast Football Club	Gold Coast Football Club	https://www.facebook.com/GoldCoastFC	4,111	Yes
AFL	Melbourne Demons	Melbourne Football Club, The Mighty Demons	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2207848796	4,052	No
AFL	Geelong Cats	GEELONG FOOTBALL CLUB	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2528050096	3,939	No
AFL	Fremantle Dockers	Fremantle Dockers Fan Club	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2207069891	3,725	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	Israel Folau	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Israel-Folau/10150092717680478	3,577	No
Super 14	ACT Brumbies	ACT Brumbies	https://www.facebook.com/actbrumbies	3,542	No
Super 14	Western Force	Western Force	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Western-Force/24790235284	3,472
Super 14	Western Force	Western Force	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Western-Force/24790235284	3,472	No
NRL	Canberra Raiders	Canberra Raiders	https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?v=wall&ref=profile&id=1589355881	3,413	Yes
Rugby League	Papua New Guinea Kumuls	Papua New Guinea Kumuls	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Papua-New-Guinea-Kumuls/48575750514	3,310	Yes
NRL	North Queensland Cowboys	North Queensland Toyota Cowboys	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kirwan-Australia/North-Queensland-Toyota-Cowboys/9098495661	3,208	Yes
AFL	Hawthorn Hawks	Hawthorn Hawks	https://www.facebook.com/hawthornhawks	3,182	No
AFL	Port Adelaide Power	Port Adelaide Power	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2373641808	3,152	No
AFL	Richmond Tigers	Richmond Tigers	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2249604493	2,748	No
AFL	North Melbourne Kangaroos	North Melbourne Kangaroos	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2600790272	2,413	No
AFL	Brisbane Lions	Brisbane Lions AFC	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2210819520	2,321	No
Women’s World Cup	Matildas	Matildas – Australian National Women’s Football Team	https://www.facebook.com/matildas	2,204	Yes
Super 14	ACT Brumbies	Official Brumbies Fan Page	https://www.facebook.com/BrumbiesFanPage	2,196	Yes
AFL	Adelaide Crows	Adelaide Crows The team for all proud South Aussies	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Adelaide-Crows-The-team-for-all-proud-South-Aussies/153984865902	2,116	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Western Bulldogs 2010	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Western-Bulldogs-2010/217871884770	2,019	No
AFL	Essendon Bombers	Essendon Bombers	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14594414804	2,016	No
Women’s Flat Track Derby Association	Western Sydney Rollers	Western Sydney Rollers	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Penrith-Australia/Western-Sydney-Rollers/42792267115	2,001	Yes
AFL	Carlton Blues	Carlton Blues Supporters Club	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2205002774	1,614	No
Rugby League/State of Origin	New South Wales Blues	New South Wales Rugby League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-South-Wales-Rugby-League/62360768317	1,436	Yes
W-League	W-League	Westfield W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Westfield-W-League/284833825576	1,424	Yes
AFL	Greater Western Sydney	Team GWS	https://www.facebook.com/teamgws	1,359	Yes
NRL	Canberra Raiders	Canberra Raiders	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Canberra-Australia/Canberra-Raiders/44722778922	1,255	Yes
NRL	Melbourne Storm	Support the Melbourne Storm this Sunday Night	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-the-Melbourne-Storm-this-Sunday-Night/112926535407833	1,244	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Anything To Do With Footy.	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=46374304132	984	No
AFL	West Coast Eagles	West Coast Eagles SUCK!	https://www.facebook.com/pages/West-Coast-Eagles-SUCK/283601832162	953	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Akermanis/301148780410	943	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	WESTERN BULLDOGS 2010 PREMIERSHIP TEAM	https://www.facebook.com/pages/WESTERN-BULLDOGS-2010-PREMIERSHIP-TEAM/304790027975	673	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis is a homophobe.	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118380594866779	631	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Akermanis/107712129252191	630	No
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	Socceroos	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Socceroos/106353142733985	617	No
AFL	St. Kilda Saints	ST KILDA SAINTS	https://www.facebook.com/pages/ST-KILDA-SAINTS/76945789299	599	No
SEABL	SEABL	SEABL	https://www.facebook.com/pages/SEABL/156802199436	599	Yes
AFL	Collingwood Magpies	COLLINGWOOD MAGPIES PREMIERS OF 2010.	https://www.facebook.com/pages/COLLINGWOOD-MAGPIES-PREMIERS-OF-2010/206003434840	591	No
AFL	Carlton Blues	Carlton Blues	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melbourne-Australia/Carlton-Blues/159855878819	590	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Don’t you hate it when you’re in the shower and Jason Akermanis comes in?	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dont-you-hate-it-when-youre-in-the-shower-and-Jason-Akermanis-comes-in/124465230905493	548	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	The Jason Akermanis Appreciation Society	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=20900401086	482	No
W-League	Canberra United	Canberra United Fans	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=31893404397	459	Yes
AFL	Essendon Bombers	Essendon Bombers Premiers 2010!!	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Essendon-Bombers-Premiers-2010/292548086075	444	No
NRL	Melbourne Storm	melbourne storm	https://www.facebook.com/pages/melbourne-storm-/234035998634	426	No
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	100,000 Strong Socceroos Supporters To Win 2010 World Cup	https://www.facebook.com/pages/100000-Strong-Socceroos-Supporters-To-Win-2010-World-Cup/362147231671	403	No
AIHL	Sydney Bears	Sydney Bears	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sydney-Bears/231164562115	372	Yes
WNBL	Canberra Capitals	WNBL – Canberra Capitals	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5865846788	368
AFL	Fremantle Dockers	Fremantle Dockers : Rebuilding since 1995	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fremantle-Dockers-Rebuilding-since-1995/320031751833	365	No
AFL	Carlton Blues	Carlton Blues FC	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=85618681803	361	No
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	Socceroos to dominate in 2010	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Socceroos-to-dominate-in-2010/125877250762609	356	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Western Bulldogs	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Western-Bulldogs/109838169034373	352	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jarrod Harbrow Stay At The Western Bulldogs	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jarrod-Harbrow-Stay-At-The-Western-Bulldogs/111810932186509	348	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	Karmichael Hunt & Israel Folau: Smartest NRL players in history	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Karmichael-Hunt-Israel-Folau-Smartest-NRL-players-in-history/125580140798379	333	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	Israel Folau	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Israel-Folau/116955588324978	308	No
NRL	Canberra Raiders	Canberra Raiders	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Canberra-Raiders/107811962573583	281	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	I’m not a traitor to my sport… LOL jks, im Israel Folau	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Im-not-a-traitor-to-my-sport-LOL-jks-im-Israel-Folau/126807534010649	261	No
NBL	Wollongong Hawks	Wollongong Hawks	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2511926702	246
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	its not all about the money… LOL jkz im Israel Folau	https://www.facebook.com/pages/its-not-all-about-the-money-LOL-jkz-im-Israel-Folau/128394483853228	246	No
AFL	Greater Western Sydney	ACT 4 GWS	https://www.facebook.com/pages/ACT-4-GWS/131873296847254	226	Yes
AFL	Greater Western Sydney	Supporters of Greater Western Sydney (Team GWS) AFL	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=197444073672	224	No
AFL	Greater Western Sydney	Team GWS	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=211851956941	222	No
AFL	Port Adelaide Power	Port Adelaide Power	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Port-Adelaide-Power/9426342069	221	No
NRL	Canberra Raiders	Todd Carney 16 – Canberra Raiders 6……..(17/4/2010) Roosters Vs. Raiders	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Todd-Carney-16-Canberra-Raiders-61742010-Roosters-Vs-Raiders/117965208220477	218	No
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	Australian University Socceroos	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Australian-University-Socceroos/279400107713	217	No
World Interuniversity Games	Australian University Socceroos	Australian University Socceroos	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Australian-University-Socceroos/279400107713	217	No
NWBL	Wollongong Roller Hawks	Wollongong Roller Hawks	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34282398124	215
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis is a legend	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10308061363	211	No
WNBL	Bendigo Spirit	The Official Bendigo Spirit Basketball	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bendigo-Australia/The-Official-Bendigo-Spirit-Basketball/227515051849	183	Yes
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Vote Julia Gillard as full forward for the Bulldogs!!!	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vote-Julia-Gillard-as-full-forward-for-the-Bulldogs/135068153186079	177	No
Archery Australia	Guy Phillips	Guy Phillips	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Guy-Phillips/136216599725314	177	Yes
AFL	Richmond Tigers	Trent Cotchin	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=288344968328	174	No
NRL	Canberra Raiders	Canberra Raiders	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Canberra-Australia/Canberra-Raiders/142939450791	174	No
Greater Western Sydney and Blue Mountains Senior AFL	Penrith Rams	IGA PENRITH RAMS	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34780778851	170	No
AFL	Greater Western Sydney	Greater Western Sydney	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Greater-Western-Sydney/110850405598090	163	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Western Bulldogs	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Western-Bulldogs/275365171824	156	No
NRL	Wests Tigers	Wests Tigers NYC	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14767245041	153	No
VFL	Bendigo Bombers	Bendigo Bombers Football Club	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=166091156567	151
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Julia Gillard, full-foward for Western Bulldogs	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Julia-Gillard-full-foward-for-Western-Bulldogs/138828299460524	142	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	Im Not Really That Awesome, LOL jk, Im Israel Folau ♥	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Im-Not-Really-That-Awesome-LOL-jk-Im-Israel-Folau-3/120925127943654	141	No
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	SOCCEROOS	https://www.facebook.com/pages/SOCCEROOS-/126051170744978	136	No
AFL	Richmond Tigers	Daniel Jackson – TIGER TUFF!	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=123091481992	134	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	Israel Folau has discraced rugby league and is a DOG	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Israel-Folau-has-discraced-rugby-league-and-is-a-DOG/131445246866465	126	No
WNBL	Townsville Fire	Townsville McCafe Fire	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Townsville-Australia/Townsville-McCafe-Fire/239691963244	123	Yes
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	kickoff.com.au: A-League, Socceroos, Australian and International football	https://www.facebook.com/pages/kickoffcomau-A-League-Socceroos-Australian-and-International-football/238919388600	119	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	I’m going to be an AFL superstar. Oh wait, no i’m not. I’m Israel Folau.	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Im-going-to-be-an-AFL-superstar-Oh-wait-no-im-not-Im-Israel-Folau/130787570267787	114	No
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	Brett Holman shouldn’t play for the Socceroos	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brett-Holman-shouldnt-play-for-the-Socceroos/155289433083	114	No
NRL	Newcastle Knights	Matt Johns to coach the Newcastle Knights in 2010!	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=105298639854	110	No
Super 14	ACT Brumbies	act brumbies	https://www.facebook.com/pages/act-brumbies/188338778385	107	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	WESTERN BULLDOGS	https://www.facebook.com/pages/WESTERN-BULLDOGS/271303674325	105	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Western Bulldogs	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Western-Bulldogs/110292775655582	104	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	I love NRL, LOL jk i’m Israel Folau.	https://www.facebook.com/pages/I-love-NRL-LOL-jk-im-Israel-Folau/132015913479883	98	No
Super 14	New South Wales Waratahs	Waratahs 2008	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6889666197	98
Super 14	New South Wales Waratahs	Waratahs 2008	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6889666197	98	No
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	Cheering for the Socceroos at the local club in the World Cup	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cheering-for-the-Socceroos-at-the-local-club-in-the-World-Cup/406886935323	98	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis handstand appreciation society	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19647855868	97	No
AFL	Richmond Tigers	Greeks who support Richmond F.C the Tigers	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=56793324172	94	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Akermaniacs!!	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13979751018	88	No
AFL	Gold Coast Football Club	Gold Coast Football Club	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=116206475832	87	No
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	Langerak is a God, and will be in the Socceroos one day p.s hes HOT	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Langerak-is-a-God-and-will-be-in-the-Socceroos-one-day-ps-hes-HOT/103909322982210	86	No
WNBL	Townsville Fire	TOWNSVILLE FIRE	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7634104737	80	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Akermanis/376142636801	78	No
NRL	Canberra Raiders	i bet u i can find 10,000 people who hate canberra raiders	https://www.facebook.com/pages/i-bet-u-i-can-find-10000-people-who-hate-canberra-raiders/115693885138853	69	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	for people who wanna see Jason Akermanis shove his head up his own Ass	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=38642639632	68	No
NRL	Sydney Roosters	Sign Up Jake Friend	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=311599952794	66	No
NRL	Canberra Raiders	I’m a 2010 Canberra Raiders member	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Canberra-Australia/Im-a-2010-Canberra-Raiders-member/217845443478	65	No
NRL	Canberra Raiders	Canberra Raiders	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Canberra-Raiders/370953541588	62	No
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	Socceroos	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Socceroos/108710262493191	57	No
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	Socceroos	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Socceroos/112443855448354	57	No
AFL	Richmond Tigers	No matter how bad they are, I will still barrack for the Richmond Tigers!	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=80991032015	56	No
AFL	Greater Western Sydney	GO Team GWS	https://www.facebook.com/pages/GO-Team-GWS/201507074991	55	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Western bulldogs	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Western-bulldogs/208698572908	51	No
AFL	Greater Western Sydney	Greater Western Sydney Football Club	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Greater-Western-Sydney-Football-Club/100573089984951	49	No
VFL	Frankston Dolphins	Aaron Edwards Fan page	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=139834293787	46
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis is a dick	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118537708183794	45	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	I miss my family in brisbane…lol jk im Israel Folau	https://www.facebook.com/pages/I-miss-my-family-in-brisbanelol-jk-im-Israel-Folau/121631641206963	45	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Hi I’m Julia Gillard, I’m a politic LOL jk, I’m full forward for the bulldogs	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hi-Im-Julia-Gillard-Im-a-politic-LOL-jk-Im-full-forward-for-the-bulldogs/133430483342149	41	No
Victorian Amateur Football Association	Werribee Tigers	Werribee Amateur Football Club	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7111400046	41
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	Socceroos	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Socceroos/106019049438817	33	No
AFL	Hawthorn Hawks	The New Hawks Cheer Squad 2009 hawthorn football club	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14866934870	32	No
NRL	Canberra Raiders	Canberra Raiders	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Canberra-Raiders/148093829783	32	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	Israel Folau to switch codes and Play AFL, Stick that where it fits Gallup	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Israel-Folau-to-switch-codes-and-Play-AFL-Stick-that-where-it-fits-Gallup/121244824577993	31	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	Ive always wanted to play AFL LOL jk I’m Israel Folau	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ive-always-wanted-to-play-AFL-LOL-jk-Im-Israel-Folau/121790094527530	31	No
AFL	Greater Western Sydney	Team Gws	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=432992410322	30	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	Queensland will win Origin 2010… LOL JK, Israel Folau plays AFL now.	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Queensland-will-win-Origin-2010-LOL-JK-Israel-Folau-plays-AFL-now/121736904533450	30	No
AFL	Greater Western Sydney	GWS AFL TEAM WE DO NOT WANT YOU !!!!	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=115243691825820	24	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis slept with me	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Akermanis-slept-with-me/115552025153010	24	No
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	Petition for Israel to come play the Socceroos	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Petition-for-Israel-to-come-play-the-Socceroos/124315894249250	24	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Western Bulldogs 2010	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Western-Bulldogs-2010-/121258311217816	21	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	I’m loyal to rugby league….lol JK I’m Israel Folau	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Im-loyal-to-rugby-leaguelol-JK-Im-Israel-Folau/101306539918069	21	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	I’m Israel Folau I’m an NRL superstar, LOL jk im gonna go play footy	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Im-Israel-Folau-Im-an-NRL-superstar-LOL-jk-im-gonna-go-play-footy/118386028202456	19	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	Israel Folau ♥	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Israel-Folau-3/118502131501099	19	No
AFL	AFL	I Loved football, then Andrew ‘Dollars’ Demetriou came along	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=376087484378&ref=search	18	No
AFL	Greater Western Sydney	BOYCOTT TEAM GWS	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=127403363954150	18	No
AFL	Hawthorn Hawks	Law Hawks	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5033799337	18
AFL	Western Bulldogs	I’ll never play for the Bulldogs, LOL jk, I’m Julia Gillard	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ill-never-play-for-the-Bulldogs-LOL-jk-Im-Julia-Gillard/104083189641887	18	No
NRL	Wests Tigers	Melbourne-based Wests Tigers Fanatics	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4979514491	18	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis should be locked and gagged in a closet!	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=109095775801131	16	No
AHL	Tassie Tigers	Tassie Tigers Hockey – Top 4 three years in a row	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10850081395	16
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	Israel folau, please stay with NRL	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Israel-folau-please-stay-with-NRL/129283270431508	16	No
NRL	Canberra Raiders	Supporting the Canberra Raiders	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Supporting-the-Canberra-Raiders/378099581051	15	No
NRL	Canberra Raiders	Canberra Raiders	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Canberra-Raiders/105808109459157	14	No
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	Support for the Socceroos in South Africa	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-for-the-Socceroos-in-South-Africa/118426448190124	14	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	jason akermanis is amazing!	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=344061166761	13	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	israel folau is injury prone	https://www.facebook.com/pages/israel-folau-is-injury-prone/114024501946027	13	No
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	Change the name of the Socceroos	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brisbane-Australia/Change-the-name-of-the-Socceroos/206601790281	12	No
AFL	Greater Western Sydney	I live here and don’t support Team GWS	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=140288354383	11	No
WNBL	Townsville Fire	Fire Roster	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10595065717	10	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis for Brownlow 2008	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16522463154	9	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis to win the Coleman medal.	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21877556009	9	No
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	socceroos fan? get on it!!!!!	https://www.facebook.com/pages/socceroos-fan-get-on-it/118141831550071	9	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	JASON AKERMANIS’S IQ OF A PLANT	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=107444465957654	8	No
AFL	Greater Western Sydney	Team GWS is stupid – Nobody cares!	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=201349721647	7	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	Israel Folau an AFL player?	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Israel-Folau-an-AFL-player/125596160796485	7	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Akermanis/105738419448658	6	No
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	Socceroos	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Socceroos/119664741377244	6	No
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	The Football Supporters’ Pledge: A-League, Socceroos & Grassroots	https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Football-Supporters-Pledge-A-League-Socceroos-Grassroots/114421618592491	5	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Only Homophobes think Jason Akermanis is a homophobe!	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=128825660465576	4	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	I’m not angry Israel Folau, I’m just very disappointed in you.	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Im-not-angry-Israel-Folau-Im-just-very-disappointed-in-you/122542961115419	4	No
NRL	Canberra Raiders	CANBERRA RAIDERS (GREEN MACHINE)	https://www.facebook.com/pages/CANBERRA-RAIDERS-GREEN-MACHINE/131955160151271	4	No
AFL	Greater Western Sydney	Team GWS	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-GWS/110182962355046	3	No
AFL	Greater Western Sydney	Team GWS	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-GWS/110460898989193	3	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=124872100865630	3	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis Biography	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Akermanis-Biography/106142142741832	3	No
W-League	Brisbane Roar	Brisbane Roar FC W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brisbane-Roar-FC-W-League/113243915352961	3	No
World Cup Soccer	Socceroos	Young Socceroos	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Young-Socceroos/115695218444154	3	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	The Battle Within by Jason Akermanis	https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Battle-Within-by-Jason-Akermanis/110570445624262	2	No
NRL	Canberra Raiders	On a scale of 1-Canberra Raiders how premature are you	https://www.facebook.com/pages/On-a-scale-of-1-Canberra-Raiders-how-premature-are-you/125897990754134	2	No
W-League	Melbourne Victory	Melbourne Victory W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melbourne-Victory-W-League/114789105203249	2	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis Can’t Drive A Race Car	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=123972501889	1	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Akermanis/373300971735	1	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis Autobiography	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Akermanis-Autobiography/106446502709782	1	No
NRL	Canberra Raiders	Raiders de canberra	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Raiders-de-canberra/106471522724049	1	No
W-League	Adelaide United	Adelaide United FC W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Adelaide-United-FC-W-League/108294542532589	1	No
W-League	Adelaide United	Adelaide United F.C. W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Adelaide-United-FC-W-League/111672428851109	1	No
W-League	Adelaide United	Adelaide United W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Adelaide-United-W-League/110542468965980	1	No
W-League	Brisbane Roar	Brisbane Roar W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brisbane-Roar-W-League/106111719427974	1	No
W-League	Canberra United	Canberra United FC W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Canberra-United-FC-W-League/109991445697639	1	No
W-League	Melbourne Victory	Melbourne Victory FC W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melbourne-Victory-FC-W-League/107986482554786	1	No
W-League	Queensland Roar	Queensland Roar W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Queensland-Roar-W-League/106361719403254	1	No
W-League	W-League	Westfield W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Westfield-W-League/106287136076565	1	No
AFL	Greater Western Sydney	Team GWS	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-GWS/116207325073108	0	No
AFL	Melbourne Demons	Melbourne Demons	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melbourne-Australia/Melbourne-Demons/8283147091	0	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis Is Totally Gay	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118573961511057	0	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis is a F*ckwit	https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=18564050741	0	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis: Homophobe and complete fuckwit!	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Akermanis-Homophobe-and-complete-fuckwit/105067262872425	0	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis is a coward	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Akermanis-is-a-coward/105337389512086	0	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis is an idiot.	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Akermanis-is-an-idiot/125326927493237	0	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Jason Akermanis, you are a MORON!	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jason-Akermanis-you-are-a-MORON/109009685810123	0	No
AFL	Western Bulldogs	Western Bulldogs FC	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Western-Bulldogs-FC/22912285819	0	No
NBL	Wollongong Hawks	Wollongong Hawks	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wollongong-Australia/Wollongong-Hawks/250640730611	0
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	I’d rather see the world end in 2012 then see Israel Folau play AFL	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Id-rather-see-the-world-end-in-2012-then-see-Israel-Folau-play-AFL/125789914109136	0	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	I hate AFL…lol jk i’m karmichael hunt and israel folau	https://www.facebook.com/pages/I-hate-AFLlol-jk-im-karmichael-hunt-and-israel-folau/121488781224409	0	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	israel folau turned gay for 3 million	https://www.facebook.com/pages/israel-folau-turned-gay-for-3-million/128843927141424	0	No
NRL	Brisbane Broncos	sucks Israel Folau joined AFL, LOL jk AFL needs better players anyways	https://www.facebook.com/pages/sucks-Israel-Folau-joined-AFL-LOL-jk-AFL-needs-better-players-anyways/132172480131292	0	No
NRL	Melbourne Storm	Best team in NRL.. Melbourne Storm !	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Best-team-in-NRL-Melbourne-Storm-/43558529287	0	No
NRL	Melbourne Storm	Melbourne Storm	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melbourne-Australia/Melbourne-Storm/21222300614	0	Yes
W-League	Canberra United	Canberra United W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Canberra-United-W-League/106044356102375	0	No
W-League	Central Coast Mariners	Central Coast Mariners FC W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Central-Coast-Mariners-FC-W-League/108518769173365	0	No
W-League	Central Coast Mariners	Central Coast Mariners W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Central-Coast-Mariners-W-League/111835622169478	0	No
W-League	Newcastle Jets	Newcastle Jets FC W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Newcastle-Jets-FC-W-League/105841596122300	0	No
W-League	Newcastle Jets	Newcastle Jets W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Newcastle-Jets-W-League/110694742284280	0	No
W-League	Newcastle United Jets	Newcastle United Jets FC W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Newcastle-United-Jets-FC-W-League/107745802588731	0	No
W-League	Newcastle United Jets	Newcastle United Jets W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Newcastle-United-Jets-W-League/106256169412363	0	No
W-League	Perth Glory	Perth Glory W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Perth-Glory-W-League/106426936059962	0	No
W-League	Perth Glory FC	Perth Glory FC W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Perth-Glory-FC-W-League/105709786128298	0	No
W-League	Queensland Roar	Queensland Roar FC W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Queensland-Roar-FC-W-League/106577539379058	0	No
W-League	Sydney FC	Sydney FC W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sydney-FC-W-League/107350229294344	0	No
W-League	W-League	Westfield W-League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/Westfield-W-League/112250692140005	0	No
W-League	W-League	W League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/W-League/105657402802575	0	Yes
W-League	W-League	W League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/W-League/105657402802575	0	No
W-League	W-League	W League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/W-League/109267555759761	0	No
W-League	W-League	W League	https://www.facebook.com/pages/W-League/119918504685192	0	No
WNBL	Bendigo Spirit	WNBL – Bendigo Spirit	https://www.facebook.com/BendigoSpirit	0	Yes

Related Posts:

• More popular Australian (and Kiwi) sport related Facebook fanpages and groups (November 23)
• More popular Australian (and Kiwi) sport related Facebook fanpages and groups
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (December 11)
• One week Twitter change for Australia/New Zealand sport related accounts

I’ve been some what lax with collecting data during the past month.  This morning, I decided to remedy this a bit by updating my Alexa rank list for Australian sport clubs and teams.  This is what can be found below.  (The list isn’t all comprehensive.  I tend to mostly focus on the AFL and NRL.) It is interesting to see who is doing well, especially when compared to other clubs in the same league or clubs playing in the same geographic area.

Related Posts:

• Most popular sport league/team websites in Australia
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (December 11)
• Most popular Australian athletes, clubs, leagues and sport organizations on Twitter (October 11)
• Most popular Australian athletes, clubs, leagues and sport organizations on Twitter (October 4)

I’m a little late with this so I figured I would have a new top level post rather than edit my existing post.  If you wanted to see the data I presented the Canberra Raiders, it is available here in PDF format. It includes some Foursquare data, Gowalla data, Facebook data, Twitter data and some general NRL data.

If you want similar data related to a specific club, let me know and we can see if we can work out some sort of arrangement.  I’d love to be able to talk to more Canberra based professional, state and national teams.

Related Posts:

• An interview with Ben Pollack from the Canberra Raiders
• Online Activity in the Wake of the Melbourne Storm Controversy
• Which AFL team do Canberrans support in the Grand Final?
• Data absent context can change the meaning: Did Julia Gillard hurt the Bulldogs?

On Wednesday, June 23, 2010, I had the pleasure of talking to Ben Pollack and another staff member at the Canberra Raider.  I really appreciated the opportunity to talk to them as it was provided additional insight into how sport clubs view fandom and social media. I’ve tried to convey as accurately as possible what they have told me based on my memory and I asked their permission to reference them in my blog and paper while I met with them.

If you’re not familiar with the Canberra Raiders, they are a Rugby League team that competes at the top level in the National Rugby League in Australia.  They are based in Australia’s capital, Canberra, and play their home games at Bruce Stadium.  The NRL has a profit sharing scheme, where revenues are shared between all teams.

My purpose in talking to them was to help provide background knowledge for my literature review and to generally enhance my understanding of Australian team sport as it may apply other parts of my research.  Going in, I had four questions I wanted answers to.  These questions were:

1. How do you define fandom?
2. How do you reach out to the fan community?
3. How much influence does league management provide in terms of defining fandom and how to engage in outreach?  Do they give guidance on social media policies?
4. How much do other sports, teams and leagues play a role in development and implementation of concepts related to fan engagement and social media?

The Canberra Raiders define fandom very broadly as people who barrack for them and who attend games.  Their goal is to have this definition encompass all ages, both genders and across the demographic spectrum.  They focus on the Canberra area. They want to take interest in the club and translate that into getting people into the stadium, with bums on seats.  They did not mention trying to get fans to watch on television or buy their merchandise.  It may be something that they define as fandom but I did not follow up to ask about that.

When I inquired about the regional aspect in the NRL helping teams by enabling them to develop a local fanbase, they said that this worked a lot in their favor as the Canberra area was very supportive of the team.  This may not be as true for some of the Sydney based teams where there is much more market overlap and a few teams play at the same venue.  There, clubs need to market more towards traditional understandings of who composes their fanbase.  Sydney based teams are much like many of the Melbourne based AFL clubs in this regard.

I had some data from Facebook that said that there were roughly twice as many UCanberra students and alumni who were fans of the club compared to ANU.  I asked them why their fanbase was stronger at the University of Canberra, if it had to do with different cultures or possibly class related affiliations that each university has.  The club responded that they thought they probably had more fans at UC because the university has a well-known sport program and tends to attract more sport fans than ANU.

I had some bebo related geographic data.  It showed that there were a number of fans from the Brisbane area.  I asked the Raiders if they could explain that.  They told me that this geographic fanbase dates to the club’s founding, when several of the players came from Brisbane.  The club has managed to maintain this fanbase in Queensland over time.

The club primarily reaches out to their fanbase using traditional advertising: Newspapers, television and mail outs.  They have a member list and every week they send out a newsletter to their members.  The newsletter contains injury information, game summaries and information on any special deals that the club has.  They do some outreach on social media, but that is primarily confined to Facebook.

The NRL is a huge influence in how the club handles their website and their social media.  The league requires that clubs post certain types of web and video content every week.  This includes a match report and the post-game press conference.  The NRL has incentivized clubs to try to draw traffic to their websites; at the end of the season, revenues earned by the clubs on their sites are distributed to the clubs.  According to the Raiders, the league brought in Bernie Mullin to help it develop a plan regarding their online activities.  The NRL also guides clubs by encouraging them to push to increase their membership.  Some of this push is based around the idea of local clubs and increasing attendance at local grounds and keeping that local identity.

The Canberra Raiders thus use social media as a way to drive traffic to their site.  Based on our conversation, I did not get the feeling that using social media to develop a fanbase was a goal unto itself.  Rather, I was left with the impression that social media was a tool to drive traffic to their site to help increase their revenue.

The NRL does watch other leagues to see what they are doing in terms of social media.  The Raiders do less of this and spend less time developing their own social media strategy.  This is largely because the Raiders feel the NRL has better resources and more money to handle this.  The Raiders also do not have much time to do this on their own.

One of the major areas where the team has acted regarding social media is in giving in their players training in the use of social media training.  The Australian Federal Police conducted this training.  Details about the training can be found on the club’s website at www.raiders.com.au/default.aspx?s=article-display&id=27038 .  This was something the club felt was important because a number of their players are on Facebook.  Some have 2,000 to 3,000 friends, many of whom they do not know personally.  There have been a number of high profile incidents involving players getting negative media attention as a result of their comments on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter; they want to avoid that.  In general, the club advises players to be careful, not to talk about the team and to keep things personal.  The club does not ban the use of it and the NRL is aware of these problems and is encouraging training.

After getting my questions answered, I asked the Raiders about specific aspects of their social media strategy and asked the club if they had any questions based on the data packet I had provided.  The club does have an official Facebook page and Twitter account.  Ben is most familiar with Facebook, which is one of the reasons they use it more than Twitter.  The club’s original Facebook strategy involved creating a user account, friending people and trying to convert these friends into fans of the official fanpage.  The conversion rate was very low and they did not find it very effective in accomplishing their goals.

They are not entirely certain how Twitter fits into their social media strategy and there is a question of how they chose people to follow.  (Compared to other teams in the NRL, they follow almost no one.)  They were interested in increasing their number of followers but were not certain how to do it.  They also did not think that anyone had replied to them or reTweeted them, though this could be a result of not being familiar enough with the site.

We also discussed Foursquare and Gowalla, how they were used and if it was worth it for the team to explore using them.  They were unsure in this regard, as their time is limited.  If it is the next big thing, it might be worth them investigating.

I asked the club about their web traffic, citing some traffic data from Compete.  They said that a number of teams in the NRL share names with other sport teams.  In the case of the Canberra Raiders, it is the Oakland Raiders.  During the season for the other team, they often see an increase in traffic from US based visitors who mistakenly find their site.

I asked if the club had considered using YouTube.  They had.  One of their ideas involved uploading preview clips to Youtube, with attached notices that the full clip could be viewed on their site. They were not certain of the potential ROI and in the end did not use it.  I then asked them if visitors could embed official Raiders videos on their own blogs.  They were not certain but said that fans could definitely link to their videos.

While social media is a big potential audience for the club, most of their dedicated fans online congregate on a message board not controlled by the club.  They do monitor it and find it occasionally to be a concern because of that lack of control.  The club is aware of the fact that the media also monitor this message board and occasionally use it to generate less than favorable story ideas about the site.

In preparation for talking with the Canberra Raiders, I completed an overview of the size of the online community for the team.  If you are interested in this document, please contact me at laura[@]fanhistory[dot]com or my university e-mail address, laura.hale@ucanberra.

Related Posts:

• Online Activity in the Wake of the Melbourne Storm Controversy
• Bendigo Spirit on YouTube
• Distribution of Australian sports fans by league and location
• Claxton Shield on Twitter

This post is basically an update of Version 2: Most popular Australian athlete and team related Twitter accounts by total followers. I haven’t actively sought to improve or update the accounts included on this list though there are a few new accounts.  A few accounts have been deleted and one has been suspended, LanceFranklin. Deleted and suspended accounts have been marked with a 0 for total number of followers.

This data was gathered on May 30, 2010.  It includes non-Australian teams that compete in Australian based leagues.  It also contains Australian some athlete accounts where the athlete competes for a club in an Australian based league.